Government convincing IMF not to increase gas price for public

The Ukrainian government is insisting in its talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the gas price for the public be kept at the current level, First Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Kliuyev said.

"As for the price of gas for the public, we are now holding talks [with the IMF] in order to keep the gas price at the current level," he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

Kliuyev said that the government had envisaged "the payment of the price difference" in the draft state budget for 2012.